The remains of Nathi Mthethwa are to be repatriated this week. Image credit: EWN.
General Masemola emphasised that the job of a single officer is solely for police-to-police collaboration and is not to carry out a formal, parallel investigation while speaking at the SAPS Safer Festive Season activities launch in Bloemfontein.
Liaison, Not Investigation
Nathi Mthethwa, the former ambassador to France and minister of police, died last week after plummeting from the 22nd floor of a hotel in Paris. The Mthethwa family, seeking closure, welcomed the Police Ministry’s initial announcement that a five-member team would be sent.
General Masemola clarified the revised mission:
- Function: The lone senior officer will communicate with the South African Embassy and French authorities.
- Mandate: The officer’s goal is to ask clarifying questions and get a first-hand report from French investigators.
- Justification: According to Masemola, this limited presence was “appropriate” considering the Department of International Relations and collaboration’s (DIRCO) involvement and the customary nature of police collaboration in such global circumstances. Because Mthethwa was a representative of the President, he emphasised the significance of reassuring the family and the public that the situation is being handled with urgency and transparency. On Tuesday, the officer was scheduled to leave South Africa.
Official Funeral Status Confirmed
Plans for the return of the Ambassador’s remains are still on track, even with the modifications to the SAPS deployment. The Ambassador’s body is scheduled to depart France on Thursday and reach South Africa on Friday, according to family spokeswoman Dr Sfiso Buthelezi, who confirmed this from Paris. After the French post-mortem was finished earlier this week, the body was transferred to a private mortuary.
The KwaZulu-Natal Premier has confirmed that Mthethwa will get a Special Official Funeral Category 2, a gesture of national respect for the former Minister of Police and Sport, Arts, and Culture, even though President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration has not yet made the declaration. The burial is expected to take place this weekend, according to the family.
The family insists that they won’t find closure until the facts are formally confirmed and is still awaiting the definitive autopsy report for the “scientific outcome” on the cause of death.
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